Former members of Rivers State APC Executive Committee have filed a lawsuit against the national party leadership, contesting their dissolution and the appointment of Tony Okocha as head of the Rivers APC caretaker executives.
Named respondents in the legal action include APC national leaders, the seven-member Caretaker Committee of Rivers State APC, the Inspector General of Police, the Nigerian Police Force, and the Independent National Electoral Commission.
The lawsuit, initiated by Sam Etetegwung and other ousted APC EXCO members in Rivers State, was presented by their legal representative, Collins Dike.
An ex parte order was obtained to serve the originating summons and other documents to the defendants, particularly the first and second defendants, via alternative means.
During the recent court session chaired by Justice C. N Wali, the presiding judge, the case was adjourned to March 13th for the substantive suit hearing.
Outside the courtroom, Dike, counsel for the dissolved APC Rivers EXCO, emphasized the illegality of the dissolution.
He argued, “We are saying that no section of the Constitution of the All Progressives Congress empowers them to do that. No section of the Electoral Act 2022 allows them to do that. We are saying that what they did is standing on no legs as it were, and that’s why we are in court.”
Dike further asserted, “We are asking the court to set aside the purported dissolution being that it is baseless in law, and continue to recognize the Chief Emeka Beke-led EXCO as the proper EXCO which even as we speak now, is the proper EXCO of the APC.”
